3 Busted Bulgarian Senior Civil Servants Released on Bail

Six Bulgarian officials from the Road Infrastructure Agency were nabbed Friday by Bulgaria's Unit for Combating Organized Crime, GDBOP, on suspicions of criminal breach of trust. File photo

Three of the total of six Bulgarian officials from the Road Infrastructure Agency, who were arrested last Friday, have been released on bail of BGN 25 000 each.

They have been set free on the very same day of the arrest on grounds of the prosecutor that there was no suspicion they will attempt to hide or commit another crime. The other three remain behind bars for 72 hours before being arraigned.

A total of six Bulgarian officials, including Road Infrastructure Agency Head of Directorate, Alexander Koserkov, were detained on October 5 in a special police operation.

According to the police, the six men nabbed by Bulgaria's Unit for Combating Organized Crime, GDBOP, were using their positions as civil servants to prevent inspections by mobile groups for collecting road fees, thus incurring losses to the State budget.

During the Friday special operation, GDBOP found a 40-ton discrepancy between the actual load transported by a local transport firm, and the amount declared of transported goods declared on paper. Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said that just in this scam the profit was BGN 20 000.

The police operation in Sofia was staged in cooperation with the GDBOP units in Ruse, Haskovo, Pleven, and Blagoevgrad, and was led by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

All six detainees are to be charged with criminal breach of trust. Besides Koserkov's name, little is known about the other five persons who were arrested.

The Interior Ministry is still calculating the losses that the criminal activity in question incurred to Bulgaria's State budget.

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